Groundbreaking investigative effort identifies gonorrhea vaccine candidates
The findings are an important step toward a potential new weapon in the fight against a sexually transmitted disease that affects millions of people around the globe, with nearly 80 million new cases estimated each year. The pathogen that causes the disease, Neisseria gonorrhoeae , is considered a "superbug" because of its resistance to all classes of antibiotics available for treating infections. Gonorrhea is highly damaging to reproductive and neonatal health if untreated or improperly treated. It can lead to endometritis, pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy, epididymitis and infertility. Also, babies born to infected mothers are at increased risk of blindness. More than half of infected women don't have symptoms, but those asymptomatic cases can still lead to severe consequences for the patient's reproductive health, including miscarriage or premature delivery, said OSU College of Pharmacy researcher Aleksandra Sikora. Subjecting N. gonorrh...